A twist in 2G tale? Man tells journalists he killed Raja aide

NEW DELHI: The CBI will probe claims made by one K Prabhakaran that he and two others had murdered Sadiq Batcha, an alleged close aide of former telecom minister and 2G scam accused A Raja.

The agency, which probed Batcha's mysterious death in 2011, had filed a closure report in August 2012, having concluded that he committed suicide. Batcha ran a company through which the agency suspected the alleged illicit remittances in the 2G case were routed.

CBI sources said they had taken note of the claims made by 24-year-old Prabhakaran at Tiruchirapalli Press Club on Tuesday, that he and two others had murdered Batcha in 2011, and any further action would be in accordance with the provisions of the law.

"We killed Sadiq Batcha at the office of Green House Promoters in T Nagar in the late hours on March 16, 2011. Jaffer Sait strangulated Sadiq Batcha with a towel and Paramesh Kumar pressed his knee on Sadiq's neck while I was holding his legs.

Later, Paramesh and his aides hanged the body to make it look as if it was suicide," Prabhakaran said on Tuesday.

He claimed Batcha was murdered after he gave the CBI "vital information" that went against Raja in the 2G case. He, however, said Raja had no role in the alleged murder.

In order to reopen the probe, the agency will have to approach the court where it had filed the closure report and seek its permission, citing the grounds on which it wants to restart investigations.

Latching on to Prabhakaran's claim, MDMK chief Vaiko alleged that a top police official had a hand in closing Batcha's "murder" case by terming the death a suicide, to shield the culprits. Batcha was found hanging in his house at Teynampet in south Chennai by his wife and driver, nearly a month after Raja's arrest in the 2G case.

The agency had used the services of forensic experts from AIIMS to detect whether Batcha was killed but even after a detailed examination, it did not find anything to substantiate the murder hypothesis, CBI sources said.

Batcha had left a suicide note stating that he was "embarrassed" by the raids of various enforcement agencies and the extensive media coverage. The agency had concluded that the suicide note was in his own handwriting.

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